


you turn my world (upside-down)

by injeong



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Arthur Knows About Merlin's Magic (Merlin), Arthur still thinks magic is evil, Bandits & Outlaws, Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Happy Ending, I know Arthur's not that stupid but it wouldn't be as funny otherwise, I think?, Light Angst, Literally mostly crack, M/M, Magic Revealed, Merlin highkey makes fun of it, Merlin's Magic Revealed (Merlin), Oblivious Arthur, The knights will defend Merlin to their last breath, a little bit at the end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:34:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25558180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/injeong/pseuds/injeong
Summary: Merlin accidentally revealed his magic to Arthur and the knights. While the knights immediately take it in their stride, Arthur is a little more difficult to convince.aka Magic Reveal, but it's 90% crack and 10% feels
Relationships: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Comments: 53
Kudos: 688





	you turn my world (upside-down)

  
"Oh, no," Merlin said monotonously. "I used my devil's magic to light a fire to stop us all from dying of hypothermia. I can feel the corruption spreading through me and turning my morals to dust. I no longer see any of you as friends and will kill you as soon as humanly possible because my magic is telling me to. I am now pure evil and desire nothing but to murder innocent children." 

Arthur scrambled up away from him, snatching up his sword. "I knew it -"

Merlin just raised an eyebrow at him in a scarily accurate impression of Gaius' Eyebrow of Doom.

"Oh, man. Why do I even bother? You're hopeless." 

Inching closer to the fire's warmth, Gwaine sniggered. "Mate, your talents are wasted on him. Come and be my guardian angel magician, I promise I'll appreciate you." 

He punctuated the last sentence with a suggestive wink that made Merlin groan and look away. 

"You're just as bad. Why am I friends with you? You're all idiots. I'm done, I'm going to go and live in Ealdor and start my own magical kingdom there. I'll come back in, oh, four months with a magical army and raze Camelot to the ground." 

Arthur started opening and shutting his mouth wordlessly, staring wildly between Merlin and the rest of the knights. 

"Did you just - did you guys hear that? He literally said -" 

Not even Leon blinked an eye at his words, merely scraping the last of his food from the bowl, stuffing it in his mouth, and handing the empty bowl to Merlin, who - with his hands still tied - levitated it into the air, and started washing it in the stream a few feet away. He turned around to meet Arthur's gaze with a deadpan look. 

"Oh dear," he said blankly. "I used my evil, treacherous magic to clean Sir Leon's bowl. I must be falling deeper into depravity than I thought. You might want to take your men and run, sire, or I fear I may not be able to hold back my treasonous and wicked desires." 

Arthur gaped at him, pausing only to shoot a betrayed glance at Leon, who pretended not to look. _Traitors_. He hovered uncertainly near the treeline, still clutching his sword, and watched in badly concealed annoyance as Percival took one of the blankets from his horse's saddlebag and draped it over Merlin's shoulders. Merlin flashed him a small, grateful smile. Arthur spluttered incoherently. 

"Percival!" 

The knight looked up at him with an expression almost akin to a kicked puppy. "It's cold, sire," he said innocently. "Merlin's hands are tied, and it would not be noble of us to just let him die." 

"You know just as well as all of us that he could get rid of those ropes in an instant, they make no difference, I don't know why I even bothered -" 

"Oh," said Merlin brightly, "Why didn't you say so earlier? These are horribly uncomfortable." He muttered something under his breath, eyes flashing gold, and the ropes untie themselves neatly. Merlin rubbed his wrists, wincing - oh, come on, he didn't tie them _that_ tight - then looked up and suddenly the rope was flying towards him, whipping through the air. Arthur threw up his arms in front of his face, bracing himself for whatever horrible demise the sorcerer was planning on -

Nothing happened. After a few, long moments, Arthur peeked out from behind his sword. 

The ropes were bobbing up and down happily in mid-air. Somehow, they had twisted themselves into a series of intricate knots and loops, and now looked very much like a bouquet of rope flowers. 

"A peace offering for my king?" Merlin said, eyes sparkling. Arthur eyed the flowers suspiciously. 

"They could - you might have hidden something in them," he said, unsure, and _didn't_ go red at Elyan and Gwaine's barely concealed snickering. 

"I'm pleased to see you have taken your training to heart, sire," Leon said seriously. "Danger surely approaches us from all angles. Would you like me to send the servants to upturn every flower vase in the castle when we return? Just in case a sorcerer may have enchanted one of the flowers to take up the nearest weapon and assassinate a noble with it?" 

"You're making fun of me!" 

"No," piped up Merlin, now crouching next to Gwaine and warming his hands on the merrily crackling fire. "He's right. I poisoned all the water vases in the castle, and enchanted them so that anyone who walks by will be overcome with the sudden and overwhelming urge to kill Arthur - that is, an urge that is more powerful than the one everyone normally has. The magic corrupted me and made me evil and told me to do bad things for the sake of doing bad things." 

"See? He said -" 

He broke off in alarm when a clamorous noise reached them, and in the next moment hordes of bandits were riding over the hill and heading straight towards them, swords and maces drawn. Arthur spun around, and his orders were ready on his lips when with a loud crash and a chorus of surprised yelling, the bandits ... smashed against an invisible wall and started rapidly piling up on top of each other. 

The longer he looked at it, the more ridiculous it became, almost to the point of hilarity. The bandits who were currently getting crushed at the front, their faces distorted into funny expressions as they pressed against the magical barrier, were screaming at the people at the back to slow down, but it took a good few minutes before they managed to stop. One of them, a particularly large man with a permanent scowl that had been hilariously disfigured by running into the barrier at top speed, violently struck the invisible wall with his sword. The sword crumpled upon contact, and the bandit stared in nervous shock at the now squiggly, deformed blade. 

_Invisible wall,_ Arthur thought dazedly. _That's handy._

... wait. 

He whirled around. Merlin, a hand lazily outstretched and golden embers just receding from his eyes, was sighing contentedly as Leon passed him strips of dried meat from their packs to snack on. 

"Wow. This is so much easier when I don't have to hide it. I should have just told you guys ages ago." 

Arthur dropped his sword. 

"Stop feeding him!" he yelled exasperatedly. Leon froze, then slowly reached his hand behind his back and passed the meat strip to Gwaine, who stuck it in Merlin's mouth. Arthur huffed. 

"I can still see you, you know." 

Merlin shrugged. "You're welcome, Arthur." 

"No!" he yelled back. "This is just - just one of your evil magic schemes! You're going to pretend to save us from the people you enchanted to attack us and then worm your way into our good graces only to turn on us and betray us when we trusted you and needed you the most, leaving us to die horrible painful deaths at the hands of our mortal enemies! Don't pretend to be innocent, I see right through your act, you lying traitor!" 

Even the bandits on the other side of the invisible wall had fallen silent, staring in bewilderment at Arthur's outburst. Merlin was boggling wide-eyed at him.

"Damn," he said finally. "Who hurt you?" 

From across the river, one of the bandits raised a hand. 

"He didn't enchant us, sire," he called helpfully, and Arthur spun around, grabbing his sword and waving it wildly in his direction.

"Shut up! You know nothing! Go back to pillaging innocent peasants!" He paused, and paled. "Wait, no, don't do that." 

The bandit lowered his hand and shrugged, leaning on the wall casually and taking a swig from his waterskin. 

"Suit yourself," he said, voice slightly muffled by the magic wall. "Also, I'll stop raiding innocent peasants when you lower the goddamn taxes your nasty father set up." 

"Oh," said Arthur, momentarily distracted again. "Yes. Of course. I've been meaning to do that - Leon, remind the council when we return to Camelot." 

"Of course, sire."

"Cheers, mate" the bandit said, and mounted his horse and trotted off into the forest. Arthur and the knights stared after him in slightly flabbergasted shock. 

"Well," Merlin said cheerfully, "That went surprisingly well. What about the rest of you guys? Surely you don't like killing and pillaging just for the fun of it. Come on, tell Arthur here what you want. He's a good king, he'll give it to you. Or tell me! I'm Emrys, the most powerful warlock -" 

Lancelot slapped a hand over Merlin's mouth, and Arthur glared at them both before turning to the rest of the bandits, who were watching the scene with increasing confusion. 

"Um," one of the smaller bandits said, "My lord, I was banished from my kingdom for a theft I was framed for. Nobody would hire me because of that. I had no other way to feed myself." 

Merlin clapped his hands delightedly. "Great! You can come work in Camelot! Gaius needs another assistant because I'm too busy saving Arthur and fulfilling my destiny -" 

"No," Arthur stressed, then faltered when he saw the crestfallen look on the bandit's face. Now that he looked closely, the bandit was more of a boy than a man - he was probably closer to Merlin's age. 

"Maybe," he said, sighing heavily, and the boy brightened, then yelped as the barrier de-materialised where he was and he fell through, splashing into the small stream. Merlin beamed at Arthur. Arthur almost smiled back, caught up in the infectious happiness that was practically pouring from his manservant, then realised he was an evil, lying sorcerer, and looked away. 

"Alright," he said grumpily, facing the bandits again. "Who else wants to make a request? A _reasonable_ one. I'm not letting all of you off for free." 

  
"This is great," Merlin chirped at Arthur. "Imagine the look on their faces when we come back from a hunt with fifteen new servants for Camelot! We always have too much to do, anyway. It's unreasonable." 

"Right," said Arthur flatly, eyeing him suspiciously, hand resting on his sword. "Like you couldn't just ... snap your fingers and do all the laundry in three seconds." 

"Oh, I don't need to snap my fingers. It's too loud, anyway - attracts attention. If one of the nobles saw a random servant snapping their fingers at the laundry, they'd probably scream at me and slap me again." 

"Wait, a noble slapped you?" Arthur felt a protective anger rising up inside him, which he immediately quenched. _Sorcerer_ , he reminded himself. 

"I took care of it," Gwaine slurred, spilling his mead - where did he get that from? - which Merlin caught and neatly replaced in the waterskin with his magic. "Broke his nose. He ran off, scared out of his wits - the night in the dungeons was so worth it." 

"You did that?" Merlin gazed at the knight in awe. "Oh, _Gwaine_ -" 

Arthur picked up a stick off the ground and threw it at them. 

"Stop protecting him," he said, half-heartedly. "He's -" 

"- an evil sorcerer, oh god, I forgot." Merlin gasped exaggeratedly, his hands flying to cover his mouth in mock horror. "Sire, you better just toss me onto the campfire before my evil magic overtakes me and turns me into a heartless monster with no feelings who wants nothing more than to brutally slaughter you all -" 

At this point, Arthur was too tired to protest further, so he simply tuned out the sound of Merlin's babbling and went to sleep. 

"So," Merlin said, and Arthur screeched and threw himself backwards, because what kind of person wakes someone up by putting their faces a mere inch away from them? "I heard you owe me a hug." 

Arthur's mind blanked out. "What?" 

It took him a while to realise that, despite everything, he actually felt very well-rested. He told himself that it was due to the relief of having uncovered and caught a sorcerer who had been hiding in the heart of Camelot. _Not_ because he knew that nothing would be able to touch them during the night with a powerful magical ally in their campsite. 

"Gwaine told me," said Merlin, shuffling closer, ignoring Arthur's feeble protests of "Get off me, you damned sorcerer -" 

Arthur threw Gwaine a dirty look. Gwaine shrugged, looking very pleased with himself. 

"I do not owe you a hug," Arthur protested. 

"You do," insisted Merlin. "Remember? When you thought I'd died and you came riding out into the forest with Gwaine to look for me? Apparently I was in a bog, or something, but you came up to me and hugged me anyway - that was the only time you ever hugged me! But I was actually under a spell of Morgana's influence and magically brainwashed to try and kill you, so I didn't remember anything, so it didn't count and now you owe me a hug." 

Arthur choked. "You were _what_?" 

Merlin waved a hand dismissively. "Details, details - you owe me a hug. Give it to me." 

"No," said Arthur resolutely, edging away from his outstretched arms. Merlin visibly wilted. His miserable countenance did _not_ tug at Arthur's heart and he did not feel horribly guilty. "Go and ... kill my knights with your magic fire, or something." 

"Later," Merlin promised, wheedling. "Come on, Arthur. I'll be dead by the time I get to Camelot. Can't you spare me one hug that I rightfully deserve, before I burn on the pyre? For old times' sake, when I wasn't revealed to be an evil, conniving sorcerer corrupted by the devil and magic and plotting to murder you all - oomph." 

The rest of Merlin's words were muffled when Arthur grabbed him roughly by the shoulders and pulled him into his arms. Arthur only meant to hold him for a few seconds - he did still have some shred of dignity left as a king, after all - but then Merlin unfroze and clung to him so desperately that Arthur didn't have the heart to pull away first. 

"I'm still mad," he tried to say warningly, though his voice came out less threatening and more wobbly with emotion. "Don't get me wrong. You did lie to me and do illegal things right under my nose. You didn't trust me enough to tell me - though I'm beginning to see why. You turned my entire world view upside down, so I'll need a while to make sense of everything again. But you're not going to die. Just ... give me a few days, alright? I'll come back to you. We'll be fine." 

Merlin sniffed loudly, and Arthur couldn't bring himself to complain about the shoulder of his tunic which Merlin was currently wetting with his tears.

"Okay, Arthur." 

The knights, to their credit, said nothing when they woke up one by one to the sight of Merlin dozing off on Arthur's lap. (The fact that Arthur had glared at each of them and silently dared them to say anything might have also contributed.) Leon gave him a knowing smile as he put out the dying remains of their campfire, and Lancelot busied himself with feeding the horses, a task that they usually made Merlin do upon waking up. Elyan dropped a freshly filled waterskin next to Arthur with a grin. Percival and Gwaine were whispering under their breath, most likely discussing the safest route back to Camelot, and all the while Gwaine was looking over to Arthur and Merlin and wiggling his eyebrows suggestively while Percival half-heartedly nudged him. 

So, everything wasn't completely fine, not just yet. It wasn't something Arthur could just put in a box and move on from immediately. But he would try, and eventually, he knew, in the end, everything would turn out alright. 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope this was as fun for you to read as it was for me to write ^_^


End file.
